WASHINGTON, D.C. — Each year, a Barbour County woman goes to Capitol Hill to tell the story of her brother, Jim, who was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer at age 36 and died 18 months later on Oct. 4, 2007.
“It hit us out of the blue. He had been misdiagnosed for many, many months and, all the time, the clock was ticking. If he’d have been diagnosed earlier, then perhaps he would have had a fighting chance,” said Annette Fetty-Santilli from Philippi, now the West Virginia State Lead Volunteer for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
“I looked at him on that last day he was alive and just said, ‘Annette, you’ve got to do something about this. No one else should have to suffer this way.'”
On Tuesday, Fetty-Santilli had a picture of Jim with her as she joined more than 600 cancer patients, cancer survivors and volunteers from across the United States to lobby members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
All 50 states were represented.
“The main message is to make cancer fighting a national priority,” Fetty-Santilli told MetroNews from Washington, D.C. She had meetings with representatives of members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation scheduled through Wednesday afternoon.
The three main cancer investments needed, she said, included more than $680 million for the National Cancer Institute to fully fund the “Cancer Moonshot,” the initiative Vice President Joe Biden is leading to accelerate cancer research with the goal of completely eliminating cancer.
Other priority bills are the Palliative Care and Hospice Education Training Act and the Removing Barriers for Colorectal Cancer Screenings Act.
Each day, cancer kills 1,600 people in the U.S., according to the Cancer Action Network. This year, projections indicated nearly 12,000 West Virginia residents will be diagnosed with cancer and, of those, nearly 5,000 will die.
“It just shows that cancer doesn’t discriminate against anyone. It can affect anyone from any economic status, any race, any gender,” Fetty-Santilli said. ”
More information on the work of the Cancer Action Network, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, click here.